5 ms·
> mainstream people seem to think of Facebook as "the internet" For quite a few years people used the Internet Explorer icon on pamphlets and posters as an ico
by janto 15y ago
> mainstream people seem to think of Facebook as "the internet"
For quite a few years people used the Internet Explorer icon on pamphlets and posters as an icon representing The Internet. It seems people are now starting to use Facebook's icon for that.
- wgx 15y agoJust to corroborate, I've done user testing with young people (13-15) and Facebook is definitely seen as 'the internet' - along with YouTube.
- skeletonjelly 15y agoInteresting. Can you impart any more information?
- wgx 15y agoCertainly. This was user testing with groups of young people in Tower Hamlets, London in 2010. Aside from testing the UX spec we talked more widely around discovery and every group indicated that they began most tasks with a search on YouTube. Music, games, movies, homework research: all started visually on YT. Facebook came up because the majority of these kids didn't have email addresses, instead doing all their email-like conversations on Facebook messaging and their IM on Blackberry BBM.
- mechanical_fish 15y agothey began most tasks with a search on YouTube This really underlines why buying YouTube was a smart move for Google.
- rudasn 15y agoWhen I was 13-15 "the internet" was IRC and nothing else. I still can't understand how I managed to spent countless hours doing just that (scripting and that "flooding" thing seemed to be great fun though)
- zerostar07 15y agoThe same goes for the other end of the spectrum, people over 50-60 who started using the intern.. ehm sorry, facebook to connect with their grandchildren and play games. Their whole browser experience ends there, they don't ever type a URL in and have no notion of bookmarks other than facebook's app bookmarks (and they get disillusioned when they're missing).
- maximusprime 15y agoIt's also weird IMHO when you see an advert or movie trailer, and they tell you to visit their facebook page, rather than their own website...
- bphogan 15y agoIt is just a repetition of the "Use AOL Keyword "ID4" (for Independence Day). Walled gardens for the less technical savvy have been the norm. Outside of the hacker/coder/geek culture, has it ever really been different? Prodigy -> AOL -> MySpace -> Facebook
- talmand 15y agoI agree, over the years we've seen this type of thing again and again. I tried to explain to my mom once about the concept of a browser and that the IE icon on her desktop was not the Internet. After a while I gave up after realizing she was perfectly happy with her misconceptions about what the Internet is. It's only a matter of time when something else will replace Facebook as "the Internet". These things work in cycles.